Kent Past
The History of Kent
Copyright Kent Past 2010
The Courtenay Uprising
In the early morning of 31st May 1838 near Dunkirk, John Tom masquerading as Sir
William Courtenay murdered a village constable who had been sent to arrest him. Later
that day, he led a band of followers into a fight with the military at Bosenden Wood,
in which eleven more lives were lost, including his own.
These singular but mischievous
riots occurred on Thursday, the 31st of May 1838, at a place called Bossenden Wood,
about five miles from the ancient city of Canterbury, and were the result of the
pranks of a madman who had assumed the title of Sir William Percy Honeywood Courtenay,
Knight of Malta, and whose insane spirit communicated itself to the rustics, and
produced calamitous consequences. The infatuation with which this insane impostor
was followed, and even worshipped, by the peasantry of the district into which he
intruded himself, affords a striking and melancholy proof of the magic powers of
fanaticism. But while one is not surprised that, among the lower orders, he should
find persons incapable of resisting his wily and specious arguments and the impudent
falsehood of his assertions, it cannot but be the subject of the greatest astonishment
that he should have procured the countenance, during a very considerable period,
of individuals of superior rank and education in the county.
The best mode of introducing
this extraordinary event will be by detailing succinctly the circumstances of the
early life of the supposed Sir William Courtenay.
The real name of this pretender
was John Nichols Thom, and he was the son of a small farmer and maltster at St Columb
in Cornwall. While yet a lad, he procured employment in the establishment of Messrs
Plumer and Turner, wine-
He was found to have taken up his residence at the Rose
Hotel, Canterbury, and the splendour of his dress, and the eccentricity of his manners,
soon gained for him many admirers, even among the respectable inhabitants of the
town. During his canvass, he increased the number of his friends, and his success
in procuring supporters was most extraordinary. His effort, however, was not fortunate.
His opponent candidates were the Hon R. Watson and Lord Fordwich, the former of whom
obtained 832 votes and the latter 802, while Courtenay polled 375. This attempt gained
him many friends, and great popularity among the lower orders. His persuasive language
was exceedingly useful to him, but the peculiarity of his dress, combined with the
absurdity of many of his protestations, induced a belief among some of those to whom
he procured introduction that he was insane.
After his defeat, he did not confine
his proceedings to Canterbury alone, but passed through most of the towns in Kent,
declaiming against the poor laws, the revenue laws, and other portions of the statutes
of the realm which are usually considered, by the poor, to be obnoxious to their
interests. By his speeches, he obtained much eclat, but his exertions in favour of
some smugglers led him into a scrape, from which he was likely to have suffered serious
consequences. An action took place near the Goodwin Sands in the month of July 1833
between the revenue cruiser Lively and the Admiral Hood smuggler, and, in the course
of the flight of the latter vessel and her exertions to escape from the Lively, her
crew were observed to throw a great number of tubs overboard, which, on their being
picked up, proved to contain spirit. The Admiral Hood was captured, but no contraband
goods were found on board, and, on the men being taken into custody, Courtenay presented
himself as a witness before the magistrates. He swore positively that he had seen
the whole of the action and that no tubs had been thrown from the Admiral Hood. He
further stated, that he had observed those which had been picked up by the revenue
men floating in the sea all day. This was so diametrically opposed to the truth,
that a prosecution for perjury was determined on, and he was indicted at the Maidstone
Assizes on the 25th of July 1833. A verdict of conviction followed, and Mr. Justice
Park, the presiding judge, passed a sentence of imprisonment, to be followed by seven
years’ transportation. The difficulty in which he was placed, however, having reached
the knowledge of his friends in Cornwall, they made representations to the Home Secretary
that he was insane, and, after having suffered four years’ confinement in a lunatic
asylum at Barming Heath, he was at length liberated, on bail being given for his
future, good behaviour.
He now took up his abode at the residence of Mr. Francis,
a gentleman of fortune, of Fairbrook near Boughton in the neighbourhood of Canterbury,
and speedily resumed his wild efforts to gain popularity for himself. His dress now
was similar to that which he had worn before his incarceration, and the following
sketch of his personal appearance, extracted from the romance of Rookwood by Mr.
Ainsworth, well describes him. ‘A magnificent coal-
This is reproduced
from ‘Thomas Mears and Others. The Canterbury Rioters 31st May 1838’ with kind permission
of Exclassics.
Leave your email address to receive Kent Past Times free every month